


Awkward(sauce)

by theisraelproject107



Category: Kingdom Hearts
Genre: Humour, M/M, Shenanigans, cheap-ass champaggen, leftover teenage angst
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-09-15
Updated: 2015-09-15
Packaged: 2018-04-21 00:24:17
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 8,038
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4807859
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/theisraelproject107/pseuds/theisraelproject107
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It's the five-year reunion at Radiant Garden high, but Roxas is reluctant to attend for fear that he'll run into the skinny redhead that used to stalk him around school. However, upon meeting Axel again, he discovers just how much can change in five years - and wonders how in the hell he can take it all back.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Awkward(sauce)

**Author's Note:**

> Prompt: awkward (sauce can be tacked on after it for added effect, it's cool).  
> Main pairing: AkuRoku  
> Rating: M  
> Word count: 8.040  
> AO3 collection: http://archiveofourown.org/collections/AkuRokuRiSo_Month  
> Prompted By: mentalscribble (tumblr)

Sora placed himself in front of Roxas, arms thrust wide, and demanded, “How do I look?”

Roxas gave him a half-hearted once-over and nodded. “Passable,” he offered, to which Sora pouted.

Adjusting his pale blue tie, he whirled and complained, “Riku, Roxas is denying my sexiness. I demand adulation.” With a soft laugh, his boyfriend, leaning against the kitchen counter in a white suit, pushed upright and came over to grant Sora’s request.

“Of course you look sexy,” Riku told him, brushing his fingers from his tie and fixing it, “also charming, and dapper, and perfect. However, if you don’t stop messing with your tie, it’s going to be crooked all night.” He finished up with a small kiss on the tip of Sora’s nose, while Roxas folded his arms, huffed, and rolled his eyes away from the saccharine scene.

“You over-indulge my brother, Riku.”

“Riku indulges me just the right amount,” Sora countered, slipping under his boyfriend’s arm and resting against his shoulder. “You’re just grumpy tonight because you don’t want to run into that weird kid who followed you around throughout the _entirety_ of high school.”

Roxas made a face, refusing to dignify that accusation with a reply. Tonight was the five-year reunion at Radiant Garden high, the first reunion since graduation, and Sora was typically pumped. And it wasn’t like Roxas _wasn’t –_ he was looking forward to catching up with some people he’d lost touch with over the years, what with college having flung everyone all over the place. But… well, there might have been some truth to Sora’s claim.

“Oh, you mean that skinny redhead, right?” Riku dimly recalled. “Huh. I can’t remember his name.”

“Axel,” Sora supplied, Roxas sighing irritably.

“Okay, that’s enough. When’s Kairi arriving?”

Taking pity on him, Riku did his best to divert Sora’s attention by gently taking his wrist and holding it up to peer at his watch. “Any minute now,” he announced.

“Get the corsage from the fridge,” Sora urged Roxas. “She’s _your_ date.”

“Can you _please_ stop calling her that?” Roxas winced. “It’s like thinking of taking _you_ as a date.” He nevertheless did as suggested and went and got the flower from the refrigerator, shaking it a little in the box to get a good look at it. “Oh, well,” he sighed, “better than going desperate and dateless.”

The only thing he wasn’t so fond of about this whole reunion deal – besides the prospect of running into Axel – was the weird _pressure_ of the event, like there was some contest between everyone to not be the biggest loser out of the graduating class. Roxas didn’t consider himself a contender for that crown, but even so, neither he nor Kairi had wanted to be standing around on their own in case everyone else was married with kids already. They were each other’s backup, with a pinkie-sworn promise that if the other saw someone hot and single, they were allowed to ditch.

Sure enough, true to Riku’s prediction, the doorbell rang a minute later, Roxas going, at Sora’s obnoxious insistence, to open the door for her. She looked delightful, as usual, abuzz with excitement for the night ahead. She accepted the wrist corsage with exaggerated hand-flapping and a dramatic show of coquettishness.

“Watch out, next it’ll be diamond rings and trips to Paris,” Sora teased with a wicked smile, nudging Roxas in the ribs, at which point Kairi reached over and yanked his tie loose in a single motion as punishment.

While Sora whined and got Riku to fix him back up, Roxas bowed and offered her his arm. “M’lady?”

“Charmed, I’m sure,” Kairi breathlessly replied, eyelashes aflutter, and together they strutted out of the house to the waiting car. The trip to Radiant High was filled with high-volume chatter, Riku their designated driver for the night, guiding the car smoothly along the forty minute trip to their old school.

Finding a parking spot, the four of them took a moment to set themselves up, Riku and Sora holding hands, looking pretty much exactly as they had when they’d graduated, while Roxas and Kairi strolled arm in arm. Kairi’s heels clicked, the guys’ shoes scuffing every now and then, as they made their way up to the front stairs and into the brightly lit main hall of the school. Greeters directed them down towards the auditorium, which had been decorated to look like senior prom, as if the night wasn’t going to be nostalgic enough already.

Once there, amongst the swarm of people and with a drink in hand, Roxas felt himself loosening up almost immediately. The music was good, and the people he encountered were excited and happy to be there. Some of them had come in from out of town, or out of state even, in order to catch up with their old friends. Roxas spotted Hayner, Olette and Pence twenty minutes in and practically dragged Kairi in his haste to get over to them.

When they spied him, their faces lit up, Olette letting out a joyful squeal and throwing herself at him for a hug, with Hayner and Pence not far behind her. Kairi hugged them next, and for the next hour they swapped college stories and reminiscences from their school days. Before he knew it, despite his initial misgivings, Roxas found himself having a fantastic time.

Eventually, Sora and Riku came over, and after they’d done the pleased hellos with Roxas’ old friends, Sora inevitably observed, “It’s good to see you in a better mood!” Turning to the others, he loudly explained, “Roxas wasn’t super eager to come tonight in case he encountered that guy who used to follow him around all through high school.”

Seeing recognition dawn on the faces of his friends, Roxas dropped his head into his hand. “Sora,” he grated, “do you have to bring it up _all_ the time?”

“Of course,” he mischievously replied, “I’m your brother, aren’t I? You remember the guy, right?” he asked the others.

“Yeah,” Hayner nodded. “He was that scrawny guy, right?”

“With the red hair,” Pence added.

Olette giggled a little. “Oh, he had _such_ a crush on you! It was sweet!”

“Sweet?” Hayner incredulously echoed. “He was Roxas’ _stalker._ Remember that time we caught him peeking at him in the locker room?”

“Or the time he took Roxas’ favourite pencil and kept it,” Pence recalled.

“He even knew where we lived,” Sora told them, “and used to cycle past our house _all the time._ He had it bad.He was definitely completely in love with you.”

“Come on, guys,” Roxas weakly said, trying to cut them off, “he was just a kid. We’re all adults now. No point in dwelling on the embarrassing stuff.”

“But isn’t he the reason you didn’t want to come tonight?” Sora asked, once again at full volume, and it was then, as he swung his head around to look at Roxas, that his expression seemed to freeze in place. The fleeting look of horror was enough to tell Roxas exactly what – or who – he’d seen, and it was like a man marching to his death that Roxas slowly turned his head to follow his line of sight.

Aw, _shit._

Wearing a wooden smile – like maybe he had been there _the entire time –_ stood Axel. Roxas then blinked, because… while it was undeniably Axel, Axel had _changed._ Where once he had been weedy and a little on the short side, he had evidently sprouted while at college, grown quite _tall,_ and filled out nicely at the same time. His hair, which had seemed gaudy and spindly at school, always bunched back into a scruffy ponytail, now looked sleek and fashionable, worn in loose spikes. Unlike many of the men at the event, Axel had foregone a tie and simply had the top couple of buttons of his black shirt open, which he wore over black pants, with a black jacket to finish off. The unbroken colour scheme of his clothes, with the bright red of his hair, and the blazing green of his eyes that Roxas never remembered from the past as being quite this captivating, made him an eye-catching figure. Many gazes flicked to him as people milled about, but most of them probably didn’t even remember who he was. Axel had been entirely too obsessed with following Roxas around during high school to have made many friends at the same time.

After clearing his throat slightly, now that he had been noticed, Axel pleasantly said, “Good evening, guys. How’s it going? I saw you over here and thought I’d come say ‘hi’.” The whole group seemed to wince as one, suddenly realising what assholes they must have sounded like.

“Axel! Hi! Is that really you? I hardly recognised you!” Olette was the first one brave enough to speak up, and managed to set the precedent, the others following suit and greeting the man. One by one, Axel smiled at them, until he reached Roxas. His gaze flickered briefly down to Kairi’s hand on his arm, and when they rose back up, there was the slightest hint of coolness there.

“Roxas, it’s great to see you again,” he said, voice cheerily at odds with his eyes. “And – Kairi, right? You were with Roxas’ brother and his boyfriend a lot, if I remember correctly?”

“That’s me!” Kairi brightly confirmed. “What have you been doing with yourself the past five years, Axel?”

“College,” the man answered, with a suave, flirtatious grin, Kairi’s face turning the slightest bit pink. “I got into architecture at Traverse U, studied my ass off, and then came back to town to take an internship at the Restoration Committee. We restore the old buildings from Hollow Bastion, some truly beautiful architecture in that old district that are going to be subdivided and turned into premium apartments. We’re turning that whole area into the new chic place to be.  After my internship, they offered me a job, and I’m on track to becoming a junior partner.”

Everyone made impressed noises, Roxas blinking and murmuring, “Wow.”

Tilting his head, squinting one eye, Axel went on to Kairi, “You know, don’t take this the wrong way, but you remind me a lot of someone else I know – my girlfriend.” He winked charmingly. “Same pretty eyes.” To Roxas, he joked, “I guess we have the same taste in women.” Before Roxas could correct him, the man suddenly said, “Ah, and here she is! Naminé, sweetie, come meet some people.”

Roxas turned his head a little, and with… something like disappointment, saw that the girl who approached Axel with a drink in each hand was a demure, extremely pretty blonde in a simple, white, knee-length dress, as if summer followed her around. Her nose gave a cute wrinkle as she smiled at Axel, stepping into his embrace as she passed him a drink. Turning to everyone, he gestured to her, announcing, “This is Naminé, guys. Nami and I met at college. We’ve been together ever since.”

“Hi,” she softly greeted, with a shy little wave. “It’s nice to meet you all.”

Roxas noticed with a strange stab of dismay that she really did have pretty eyes.

“Naminé’s a professional artist,” Axel volunteered, making her blush. “She’s part of a gallery presentation that’s happening later in the year.”

“Wow!”

“That’s amazing, Naminé!”

“How long have you been an artist?”

As the others grilled the girl, Roxas took the opportunity to edge a little closer to Axel. Noticing his proximity immediately, Axel’s gaze dimmed a little, his body pulling slightly back. “Um,” Roxas quietly said, “I’m sorry about before. Nobody was saying anything bad about you, we were just…”

“Forget it, Roxas,” Axel dismissed with a swift, toothy grin. “It’s not like it was all wrong. I followed you like a puppy during high school, and came off as a total stalker.” He shrugged easily. “It was just one of those, uh, what do they call them? ‘Bro crushes’. I admired you, and I guess I wanted to be your friend, or be like you, or something. So in my _typically_ teenage awkwardness, I instead went and did all the wrong things and made you think I was weird.” He laughed a little at this, Roxas giving an uncertain smile.

“Oh. Okay. Well – you seem like you’re doing a lot better now. Over that teenage awkwardness, huh?”

Axel tightened his grip slightly on his girlfriend and nodded. “Yeah – just a bit.”

At the squeeze, Naminé broke away from her conversation with the others, seeming relieved to be able to talk about someone other than herself. “So, you’re Roxas, then?” she asked. Smiling, Roxas nodded.

“Nice to meet you. I’m glad that Axel found someone like you. It must be cool to have such an artistic girlfriend.” His insides felt a little – weird. He felt kind of down, all of a sudden, and couldn’t exactly pinpoint why. Maybe it was just insecurity, seeing someone who had been so low on the social food chain in high school doing so well for himself these five years later. Roxas supposed he must be petty like that.

“I’ve heard things about you,” she told him, at which Axel gave her another quick squeeze and a slightly nervous laugh.

“Oh, well, yeah – Roxas and I were just talking about my admiration for him in high school came out in all the wrong ways. It’s good to be over that period of my life. Things are _much_ better now. It’s amazing how all-encompassing high school seems until you actually, you know, get out there and on your own and meet the right people for you.” To Kairi, he prompted, “Right? You know what I’m talking about, don’t you, Kairi? You spent all that time around Riku and Sora, but I bet it wasn’t until you got out into the big, wide world that you realised that what you _really_ wanted was sort of in front of you all along.” He flashed Roxas a quick grin. “I think we can both give ourselves a pat on the back for the ladies we’ve got with us tonight.”

“Um, yeah,” Roxas numbly said, and, when Kairi seemed about to correct him about their relationship, he gave her a short, sharp nudge with his heel, cutting her off. “Anyway – drinks? Anybody?”

He escaped as swiftly as possible, heading for the refreshments table. There were cups of cheap champagne set up across a long table, along with various soda and juices, a volunteer keeping them coming as fast as they vanished. He took a minute, now that he was away from the group, to pull himself together. The pressure of being around Axel was suffocating, somehow. He was just – he’d become so charming, and so successful, and his girlfriend was so gifted, and… and what? Why was that all so hard for Roxas to handle?

As he was struggling to gather a cup of juice and three champagnes into his hands, a voice at his shoulder nearly made him spill the whole lot.

“Hey. Need any help with those?”

Head swinging to stare wide-eyed at Axel, who stood with a hip cocked and an unreadable expression on his face, Roxas breathlessly stammered, “Oh, um…” He twisted, to show the man that he had managed to pinch two cups in the fingers of each hand. “I’ve got it covered. Thanks.”

Axel regarded him impassively for a moment, standing close enough that Roxas didn’t feel able to get past without knocking into him. “You know,” Axel said, voice curiously toneless, “you could have just _said_ you weren’t with Kairi. Sora told me the truth. You didn’t have to pretend to be taken just so, what, I wouldn’t bother you?”

Roxas felt his stomach drop. _Damn it, Sora! You couldn’t keep your mouth shut for five minutes?_

Uncomfortably, he attempted to explain himself. “That’s not what it was. It just sort of… happened. You made that assumption, and –”

“And you thought it would just be easier that way? Jesus.” With a low huff, Axel gave his head a disbelieving shake. “I must have _really_ left a bad impression of you; you think I’m some kind of _creep,_ don’t you?”

Roxas flinched. “No – Axel, that’s not…”

“You made me look like an idiot in front of your brother and all your friends,” Axel stated, sounding hurt now, as well as pissed off. “I know you were having a little laugh about the old me, but I didn’t think you’d keep it up with the new me, as well. Believe it or not, I didn’t come here to be humiliated.” Sighing shortly, he rubbed an agitated hand through his hair. “I don’t know. Maybe I shouldn’t have come tonight. I thought I had a chance to change those old opinions of me… maybe even _your_ opinion of me… but in the end, I’m still that awkward, jerk teen who everyone laughs at.” Shaking his head slightly, he said, “Forget it. I’m just gonna… get Naminé and go. You don’t have to worry about me bothering you again, Roxas.”

 _“No,_ Axel, _wait…!”_ Before the guy could go storming off, Roxas abandoned the cups on the table and lunged, seizing his sleeve, halting him mid-stride. Several people around them were turning to stare with a mixture of curiosity and nosiness, one of the things that Roxas definitely did _not_ miss about high school.

Sullenly, Axel demanded, “What?”

Anxious for a chance to explain himself, he begged, “Can we just – go somewhere a little more private and clear this up? Please?” When Axel scowled, he tried again, putting every ounce of sincerity into his face and voice, to eliminate any suspicion that he might be teasing. _“Please,_ Axel.”

For a moment, it looked like Axel was going to shake him off and keep going… but that moment stretched, and as it did, Roxas saw him start to waver. Eventually, sounding impatient, he conceded, _“Fine._ All right. Let’s go find somewhere away from the music and noise.” Digging his hands into his pockets, he allowed Roxas to lead the way, following a few steps behind.

Roxas wormed his way through the reunion crowd, glancing back occasionally to make sure Axel was still following, until they were standing in the hallway outside the auditorium. To the right, down by the entrance, he could see cigarette smoke drifting by the doorway, so instead he turned to the left and led Axel a little deeper into the school, away from the hubbub of the party.

At last, when they had rounded a corner and the music was just a dim pulse in the distance, he turned to Axel, anxious to set things right. “Okay – _so…_ About Kairi. She _is_ my date tonight, but we’re not together. We’re just each other’s arm candy for this stupid reunion.”

Flatly, Axel asked, “Why lie about it?”

“I wasn’t lying!” Roxas objected, before clicking his tongue at the scepticism on Axel’s face. “Not exactly,” he clarified, “and – not deliberately, I just… I was _going_ to tell you, but before I could say anything you brought Naminé over and were showing her off, and then you kept saying about how _lucky_ we both were to have such great girlfriends and I… I felt like…” He grasped for words, before eventually admitting the truth: “I guess I just didn’t want to embarrass myself.”

“…Oh.” Axel frowned at this, seeming to hesitate at the thought of Roxas being embarrassed by the situation. After a moment, however, his eyes narrowed. “But – what about what Sora said, before you guys knew I was standing there? He told everyone that you specifically didn’t want to come tonight because… because you might meet me.”

Roxas sighed. _Once again: Sora and his big mouth._ Nothing for it but to come clean. He was acutely aware that anything less would send Axel away, and he simply didn’t have the energy or desire to keep spinning lies.

“Actually, that’s pretty much true.” When Axel visibly wilted, he hastily went on, “But it’s not what you think. I felt guilty. Back in high school, you were obviously so… uh, ‘admiring’ of me, I guess was the word you used, and I… treated you like you didn’t exist. “ He shrugged, a little helplessly, knowing all too well that it was far too late to change things now. “I knew you were there, but I just ignored you. And the thought of seeing you again tonight made me realise what a jerk I’d been.”

As Axel stared, Roxas grimaced, glancing away, shoulders hunching.

“I guess I didn’t want to feel bad, which once again just… makes me the jerk.” He pinched the bridge of his nose, brow creasing. “And then you suddenly appeared and heard the others talking about you, but you’re so friendly, and you’re doing so well, and you’ve got such a cute girlfriend, and…” He was quiet for a moment. “I guess, in that case, I am glad I came,” he said eventually, “because I got to see that it’s not all about me. While I was still being a jerk, you’ve already gone and made a life for yourself that had nothing to do with me, or high school, or…” Again, he trailed off, before mustering his courage and looking Axel directly in the eyes, hands dug into his pockets. “I guess what I want to say is, you might have been an awkward teen, but… you’ve become a really great man.” He smiled, trying to keep it upbeat rather than tinged with the regret he suddenly felt. “You deserve happiness, Axel, and I hope you and Naminé find it together.”

Axel’s expression had been becoming increasingly complex, the longer Roxas spoke. Strangely, of all the brief emotions and reactions that flitted across the man’s face, the strongest one right now was uneasiness. A silence stretched between them, into which Roxas eventually prodded, “Axel?”

At the sound of his name, Axel shifted apprehensively from one foot to the other. After just a moment longer of staying mute, he jerkily said, “Listen, Roxas… about that…” He looked, for a moment, like he couldn’t quite believe what he was about to say. The words seemed to drag from him. “I… might have lied.”

Roxas blinked. “Might have lied? About what?”

Axel hissed a breath through his teeth. “…Naminé is my – arm candy. We’re not together. We’re friends, we took a couple art classes together in college.”

“Wait. _What?”_

In the face of Roxas’ blank shock, Axel tossed his hands into the air, exclaiming, “I needed her here! I wasn’t going to just turn up on my own, that sad, weird kid from high school who can’t even get a date to the reunion. And what if you _had_ been with Kairi? Or someone else? It was either come with Naminé, or not come at all, and I had to come. I had to… see you again.”

Evidently feeling the strain of his confession, he started growing agitated, pacing shortly up and down the corridor in front of Roxas.

“And you know, you’re right: the reason I had to see you was because I wanted to show you that it’s _not_ all about you, that I made something of myself and _you_ didn’t notice the potential I had back in high school.” He stabbed a finger at Roxas with this, halting his restless movements and turning to face the blond. “I wanted to – to rub it in your face. But then, you turn up here, and I overhear you telling your friends _not_ to talk shit about me, and it turns out you’re _sorry_ about how you ignored me, and…” He ran out of words, an oversized bundle of pent-up frustration. Then, sharply, he sighed, and all at once the tension leaked out of him. Arms folding, he slumped against the wall beside Roxas. “The stupid thing is, by trying so hard to become someone who could show you how little youmatter, I was still elevating you above everyone else. For five whole years, _that’s_ the dream I pursued.” He grimaced, voice heavy. “I don’t think I’ll ever stop being that kid you looked straight through. Ridiculous, huh?”

His shame piercing, Roxas started to say, “Axel, I’m sor-”

“Ah, don’t apologise,” the man gruffly interrupted, with a flick of his hand. “Leave me what little dignity I have left.” Looking back the way they’d come, he dejectedly said, “I don’t know. I think I’ll just have a cigarette and leave. I’ve made enough of a fool of myself for one night.”

Alarmed, Roxas argued, “No, don’t do that! Don’t just go. I don’t want to ruin your evening.” Eager to appease him, he suggested, “Why don’t we head back in and you can see who else is around?”

“You’re the only one I wanted to see,” Axel bluntly replied. “Now that this is over, I just want to go home.” In a muttered aside, he added, “Drink myself blind for a while, maybe.”

As he pushed away from the wall, turning his back on Roxas to start heading for the exit, the blond experienced a moment’s panic. _If Axel leaves now, you’ll never see him again._ That little voice inside him was quiet but true – Roxas felt it down to his bones. If he let Axel walk away, if the man disappeared from his sight like this, there would be no going back.

And all of a sudden, that was something he couldn’t bear to have happen.

“Axel, hold on!” The words spilled out of him urgently, the man pausing and glancing back with a curious frown. With a smile that was only slightly desperate, Roxas proposed, “Why don’t we compromise? If you don’t want to go back to the party, how about we grab some drinks and go somewhere by ourselves? Spend some time catching up?”

Axel’s eyes flared slightly, before blinking his surprise. Turning slowly towards Roxas, he asked doubtfully, “Are you sure? You actually – want to?”

“Of course!” Relief flooded through him as he recognised the man capitulating. “I never stopped to get to know you properly in high school. I want to now. If that’s all right,” he added, the idea occurring to him that maybe that ship had long ago sailed, and he was just lucky that Axel had deigned to talk to him at all.

But the cautious smile that was currently spreading across Axel’s face suggested otherwise. “Well – yeah. Okay. Absolutely. I’d like that a lot.”

Roxas brightened. “Okay! Good! Cool!” He crossed the couple of feet that Axel had distanced between them, and, with hesitant smiles, they walked together back towards the auditorium.

As they returned to the noise and milling bodies, some people dancing to the music, others standing about in clusters conversing loudly, Roxas and Axel slipped through whatever cracks they could find on their way to the refreshments table. Roxas kept a careful eye out for Sora and everyone; he wanted to avoid running into them, if possible. Maybe it wasn’t fair of him to just vanish from view like this, but considering how obnoxious Sora had been so far, he was sure that if he and Axel were spotted hanging out together, there would be comments made and jokes cracked, and he wasn’t in the mood for that right now. He wanted to just… spend time with Axel. Without either of them having to feel self-conscious about it because of the distant past.

As they stood before the drinks, Roxas glanced over at Axel. “Wanna get drunk? Or, you know, as drunk as this watered-down swill will allow?”

The guy sent him a grin that looked almost relieved. “Sure. Let’s get hammered.”

They managed to carry, with great difficulty, six cups each, three per hand, while assuring the nearest volunteer that they were taking them to their group. Then, when they were sure they were out of sight of anyone on duty, they snuck out like a couple of kids, hurrying along with their cheap-ass champagne.

As they walked quickly along the hallway, heading deeper into the school, Axel snorted, “Did you _see_ those decorations? Somehow, I didn’t feel particularly ‘Under the Sea’.”

Roxas laughed. “Were you at senior prom? It was even more obnoxious back then. The planning committee must be losing their touch.”

Axel glanced over at him. “…Actually, I didn’t go,” he casually mentioned, at which point Roxas cringed inside, feeling like the mother of all dicks.

“Oh… Right.”

“Oh, no, you don’t understand.” Axel turned to him solemnly, eyes deliberately wide. “I was doing everyone a _kindness._ Nobody on this planet has seen me dance – and that’s how I plan to keep it. I took one for the _team.”_ Musingly, he said, “Now that I think on it, there’s a chance I saved senior prom.”

Roxas chuckled, Axel relaxing a little. They went in search of an unlocked classroom, with Roxas realising at the last moment that neither of them had a hand free for testing handles. Thus, with Axel watching on in some amazement, he got a head-start on the drinking and chugged down one hand’s worth of champagne. Licking his lips, he stacked the cups neatly together on the floor, then let out an enormous belch as the bubbles caught up with him.

“Well, look what _someone_ learned at college,” Axel jokingly commented.

“Fifth in my class,” Roxas grinned, and, now with a free hand, began rattling door handles as they made their way down the passageway. With the couple of drinks he’d already had, he was pretty sure those last three were going to pack a punch when they sank in, and was keen to have somewhere to sit down when that happened.

At last, after several fruitless tries, one of the doors gave way. They quickly piled in before anyone could come along and catch them at it, and when Roxas closed it again, they were plunged into near-darkness. What little light there was in the room came through the rippled window on the door, with a tint of moonlight illuminating the desks and chairs from the bank of windows on the other side of the room. With their bodies temporarily reduced to shadows in the gloom, they found opposing desks to sit on, legs dangling down, a little distance away from the door so they wouldn’t be immediately visible if someone were to open it.

“So – how _was_ senior prom?” Axel asked, from the safety of the darkness, his expression shrouded from view.

Roxas willed his eyes to adjust faster, so he could read the man better. “It was okay,” he admitted. “It wasn’t _completely_ uncool. I went with Xion, the girl from my English class. Just as friends,” he clarified, before Axel could draw any wrong conclusions. “There was nothing between us. She wasn’t, uh, my type. I guess I was gay back then, but none of the guys I knew did anything for me. I never felt anything like you see with Riku and Sora.”

Axel gave a low laugh. “Those two? I’d be surprised if you did. They’re soul-mates. You can see it the second they look at each other. If you had someone you looked at like that back then, maybe I wouldn’t have –” He cut himself off abruptly, a slip of the tongue which was too late to take back. Roxas heard him give a regretful hiss.

“It’s okay,” he gently said. “I already kinda figured it wasn’t just ‘admiration’.”

Axel was silent. Then, after an awkward pause, he asked, “So that changed at college?”

Roxas, feeling his mouth growing dry, took a swig of champagne from one of the three cups set up beside him on the desk. “Mm. I experimented more, I guess. Still never found myself head-over-heels or anything. Liked a few guys, but never got serious.”

“Never?”

Roxas shrugged, Axel’s face gradually becoming easier to make out in the gloom. There was a curiously rigid set to his features that made Roxas’ insides give a slight twist. “Not really,” he mumbled into his drink. After another mouthful, he asked, “What about you?”

“Ehh.” With a shrug, Axel grabbed a drink of his own and started sipping. “I went a little crazy, you could probably say. I had – fun.”

“Fun!” Roxas echoed, with a laugh, and, eager to dispel the heavier atmosphere, asked, “What kind of fun are we talking, exactly?”

“Oh, Roxas, if I told you that, your cheeks would burn right off your face. The things I did have no place in polite conversation.”

“So let’s _not_ have a polite conversation, then,” Roxas suggested, the booze starting to sink in. “Let’s,” he added impishly, “have an _impolite_ conversation.”

“I can _see_ your teeth shining in the darkness, mister,” Axel warned. “I see that grin, and so does Jesus. Are you sure you want to be talking about such lurid things in an empty classroom at your high school reunion while getting irresponsibly drunk?”

When Roxas answered, _“Yes,”_ Axel immediately sat forward and, placing his elbows on his knees, started conspiratorially, “So, anyway, there was this _one_ time, me and this guy in my dorm, his name was Reno, we snuck into the dean’s office while she was out and –”

A minute later, Roxas was choking with laughter. “That’s not a dirty story!”

“What are you talking about?” Axel protested. “Shaving cream in her drawers, whipped cream borders on her diplomas, and a veritable petting zoo of geese and rabbits in her executive bathroom! How does it get dirtier than that?”

Roxas rocked back on the desk as he laughed, trying not to spill his champagne. Looking pleased with himself, Axel drained a cup and reached for the next one. “Okay, now it’s your turn – what’s the worst prank you pulled at college?”

Wiping a tear from his eye with the heel of his palm, the blond sniffed sharply and struggled to think. “Ah… Well, this one time, Sora and I…”

The time passed quickly, the drinks disappearing until there were only empty cups littered about, some of them knocked to the ground, at which point Axel brought out a flask from his jacket pocket and they took turns swallowing burning swigs from its narrow spout.

Eventually, when the pair of them were quite drunk, Axel unsteadily said, “You know, all this is pretty incredible. I didn’t even think you’d remember me, but then here we are, having drinks together, and having fun, and it makes me happy.”

“It makes me happy, too,” Roxas told him, beaming, the two of them sitting closer now, perched on the edges of their desks, knees side by side from their sharing of Axel’s flask. “We’re a long, a long way from high school, and I’m glad you’re here.”

“The me from high school would be passing out from shock right now,” Axel said. “The indirect kisses alone from us passing my flask back and forth would have kept him, kept me happy for a week.” He let out a snort, shaking his head. “It was stupid. I was so _obsessed_ with you.”

Leaning forward, Roxas mischievously asked, “Are you still obsessed with me?”

Axel let out a few dismissive noises. “Pff. Psh. Snkk. _No.”_

Nibbling his lower lip, a playful grin tugging the corners of his mouth, Roxas peered into Axel’s averted face. Everything in him egging him on, he lifted a hand to the man’s chin, fingertips ghosting along his skin, and, when he froze, Roxas extended his neck and brushed a kiss over Axel’s parted lips. He heard the short intake of breath, and, when he drew back a little, he asked huskily, “How about now?”

Axel stared. “Uhhh…”

Roxas leaned in and kissed him again, a little longer this time, Axel’s eyebrows as high as they would go when he pulled away again.

“Are you doing that because… you’re drunk?” he asked, sounding a lot more sober himself than he had a minute ago. “Or is this out of pity?”

“Neither,” Roxas told him, without a shadow of doubt, definitely _drunk_ but still completely aware of himself. “I wanted to; that’s all.” He swallowed, glancing at Axel’s mouth, then back up to his eyes. “I like you.”

Axel closed his eyes for a moment, looking, when he opened them again, like he was expecting to have woken up or otherwise come to his senses. But they were here, right now, in a darkened classroom, just the two of them. And Roxas had told him the absolute truth: the more he’d got to spend time with Axel, the more fun he’d been having, the more he decided that this was definitely… someone whose company he preferred over others.

Axel’s voice was quiet. “You like me?”

“I wish,” Roxas softly told him, “that I’d liked you back then.”

Axel let out a low rush of air that could have almost passed for a laugh, his head briefly dipping. “W… I... Nah.” He glanced away, rubbing his neck. “I was definitely a little weird back then.”

“Then maybe I could have helped you be more normal,” Roxas smiled, drawing Axel’s incredulous gaze once more over to him.

“You… _like_ me?”

His smile widening, Roxas slid off his desk onto his feet, taking hold of the lapels of Axel’s jacket, giving them a light tug. “I _like_ you. And the alcohol has nothing to do with it. I think you’re fun, and smart, and witty…” He moved in beside Axel’s ear, whispering, “And very sexy in these dark clothes.”

He felt and heard Axel shudder, the man’s breath emerging stutteringly. When Roxas nuzzled the side of his jaw, Axel’s hands lifted hesitantly to his sides, sliding up to wrap around his waist, thumbs dragging along his shirt. He turned his face towards the blond… and Roxas was there to meet him, their first mutual kiss, slow and deep.  Axel’s hand eventually moved upward, brushing Roxas’ cheek before settling on his shoulder, tugging him forward, Roxas willingly climbing onto his lap, a knee either side of him on the desk.

As their mouths hovered a bare breath apart, Axel murmured, “You said you never got serious about the other guys you liked…” His hands stroked down Roxas’ arms. “That’s not going to happen this time. You’ll be so serious about me, you won’t know how you ever did without me in your life.”

A smile spreading slowly over his face, Roxas simply said, “Make me.” Whether it was a challenge, a dare, or a request, neither of them knew. But the words were enough to enflame Axel, who surged up into a kiss that left Roxas’ lips nearly burning from the intensity. He grabbed hold of the man, fingers lacing behind his head, both for something to hold on to, and to keep Axel’s tongue deep in his mouth. Axel’s hands went around to grasp Roxas’ behind, ostensibly to keep him from slipping off but also to feel, to squeeze, to fondle. Clinging to one another in this fashion, the kisses came fast and hot, punctuated by small gasps and the occasional grunt.

When Roxas got carried away and started grinding ever so lightly atop Axel’s crotch, the man hitched a breath and their position became suddenly tenuous as one of his feet skidded out from under him. They slipped, Axel very possibly scraping his lower back against the edge of the desk, his right foot managing to catch a nearby chair and kick it into a desk, the noise startlingly loud. They both froze, Roxas atop Axel, who was almost lying down on the desk now, and listened for a moment. After several seconds passed in which nobody kicked down the door, they broke into giggles.

Roxas then took the initiative and kept on kissing Axel while his mouth was still curved in a wide grin. His lips lost some of their smile the longer Roxas lapped at them, until, again, the intensity took over, and he was pulling Roxas down with him, fingers tracing the edges of his belt. More than ready for one or both of them to start losing their clothes, Roxas started loosening the buttons of Axel’s shirt one by one. Once there was space enough, he delved a hand in to slide down the man’s chest, Axel sighing at the caress. Soon, Roxas was peppering kisses down his throat, along his collarbone, all the while stroking at Axel’s waist and chest, pushing the shirt and his jacket back to expose one shoulder and lightly scrape his teeth against it. Axel choked out a small moan, his fingers now moving clumsily to unbuckle Roxas’ belt. He managed to get it apart, followed by the unbuttoning and unzipping of his pants, Roxas urging him to reach in and touch him – when sudden light poured in from the hallway.

They stopped dead, turning as one to stare nonplussed at the doorway, where a woman stood silhouetted, muttering, “I’m sure I heard it from in here…”

 They saw her at about the same time she saw them, which was how, moments later, they found themselves rapidly making their exit, buttoning shirts and pants, re-buckling belts, with their old History teacher dogging their every step, hissing reprimands until they out of the building and told not to come back for the ten year reunion.

In something of a daze, they stood at the edge of the parking lot under the dark sky, a cool night breeze offering sweet relief against their heated flesh. Turning to Axel, Roxas said, “Well, that was awkward. What now?”

Axel thought for a moment, then reached into his jacket pocket, felt around, and brought out a set of keys. With a cocky grin, he swung them back and forth in front of the blond and asked, “Wanna see the backseat of my car?”

.o.O.o.

Sora, with Riku, Kairi, and Naminé in tow, was looking for Roxas. He had learned a while ago, when Naminé cracked under the pressure of their questions, that she and Axel _weren’t_ in fact going out, and that Axel was as gay for Roxas as he’d ever been. This gave Sora feelings of brotherly concern, especially when the two at some point simply vanished without a word and hadn’t been seen or heard from since. It wasn’t like he thought Axel would _do_ something to Roxas, but more that Roxas was probably baled up in a corner somewhere receiving impassioned declarations of love with no ability to get away.  Try though they might, though, neither he nor Naminé could get hold of Roxas or Axel. Sora already knew that Roxas’ phone was set to silent, and it turned out that Axel’s was, too – nobody wanted to be disturbed or be the guy texting in the corner at their high school reunion.

For a while, Sora had been fine with letting time get away from them, sure that Roxas would show up at some point or another. But when one hour passed, then another, with no sign of _either_ man, that was when he’d started to think it was probably best to go looking. First, they’d split up to search, but when that yielded nothing, they started asking around, giving descriptions of the two vanished reunion-goers. When this, too, proved fruitless, they reconvened to have a drink and listen to Naminé assure them that Axel wouldn’t be behaving in an ungentlemanly fashion.  

“He’s really very gentle and dear,” she told them earnestly. “He’d never do anything that Roxas disliked.”

As much as Sora more or less believed her, Roxas’ absence nevertheless became an itch at the back of his mind. He could do little more than keep an eye out for his brother, however. As they milled near the refreshments table, certain that Roxas would return at _some_ point for more free champagne, it was Pence who found them, and told them that someone had seen two guys fitting Roxas and Axel’s descriptions leaving the school’s front entrance a short while ago.

“Maybe they went to get some fresh air?” Kairi suggested.

“Well, let’s go find them, anyway,” Sora asserted, eager to see for himself that Roxas was doing fine. As Pence returned to Hayner and Olette elsewhere in the reunion, Sora, Riku, Kairi and Naminé spilled out into the hallway and made for the exit, the two girls engaged in animated conversation as they went, having evidently hit it off. Descending the stairs outside the school, Sora looked around, his hair ruffling in the wind, Riku’s trailing in front of his face, needing to be tucked behind ears. Scanning the parking lot, Sora couldn’t immediately see either a familiar blond head or a more striking red-haired one.

Venturing into the rows of cars, he cupped his hands around his mouth and called, _“Rooooxas!”_ When no response came, he followed it with, _“Axel?”_ Still nothing. “Where could they _be?”_ he muttered, scratching his head.

“Oh!” Naminé suddenly raised a hesitant hand. “They might have gone to the car to get out of the cold?”

“Well, it _is_ pretty chilly,” Sora mused, then nodded and made a sweeping motion with one arm, inviting Naminé to take the head of the group. She skittered ahead, the three of them striding after her as she located where Axel had parked his car.

“Um, it should be around here somewhere…” She paused, fingers tapping at her lips, before her face brightened and she pointed. “There!” She was indicating a black car with heavily tinted windows, its dark paint gleaming under the nearby illumination being thrown by a streetlight. The group made a beeline for it, Sora again hurrying to the fore, his long steps taking him to the driver’s side door. Yanking on the handle, he swung it open and stuck his head in, peering about and calling in a sing-song, “Rox-as, come out, come out, wherever you – _ugh-argh!_ ” He reeled back, wrenching himself away from the thick, steamy air within the car, wheeling around and wailing, _“My eyes!”_

From within the car, muffled curses were heard, a few thumps, and then, finally, the back door opened a crack, a thoroughly shirtless – and possibly more – Axel squinting through the gap. “Can we – help you guys?” he panted.

From somewhere behind him, Roxas snarled, “Sora, I am going to _kill you!”_

 _“I’m already dead!”_ Sora moaned, staggering away, dragging at the skin beneath his eyes. “Oh, that was something I never wanted to _see._ Riku! Help! It’s too awkward! _It’s too awkward!”_

Kairi was laughing off somewhere a few feet away, grasping her stomach and wheezing, while Naminé tip-toed closer to the car and asked, “Um, Axel? Can I have the car keys? When you guys are… done… I don’t think you should be driving. You catch a taxi home, and I’ll take the car.”

Kairi, nearly crying from laughing, added, “Make sure they roll the windows down before they leave!”

With an anguished groan, Sora fled to Riku’s embrace, his boyfriend accepting him with utter bewilderment, patting his hair and asking, “What… exactly did you see?”

 _“Nothing,”_ Sora rasped, and never before had a more haunted word been uttered. “Nothing at all.”

Axel located the keys and slipped them through the door, Naminé thanking him with blushing cheeks and retreating quickly. The door closed again with a distinct _thud,_ and for a shell-shocked moment, the four of them stood in place, Kairi still giggling, and processed what had just occurred. From the car, a low murmur of voices could be heard, Roxas and Axel evidently discussing the intrusion. _Well,_ Sora thought dazedly, _at least Axel isn’t doing anything he doesn’t… like…?_

“Augh.” He clutched his head, wishing he hadn’t remembered Naminé’s words right at that moment.

Then, in a sudden shift in tone, one of the voices inside the car became what was obviously a _moan._

Sora snapped. Clutching his head, he shrieked, _“Augghhh! Riku, we’re never having sex again!”_

Riku’s arms stiffened around him. “Wh… what!?”

Sora took off running towards the auditorium, Riku in half-panicked pursuit, leaving Kairi and Naminé to follow at a more leisurely pace, Sora’s anguished cry of, _“Awkwardsauuuuce!”_ carrying through the night.


End file.
